Paul Freiberger's Blog, page 3

Learn to interview via audio

WHEN CAN YOU START? 2014: ACE THE JOB INTERVIEW AND GET HIRED just became available on Audible.com.

I’m excited as this is my first audio book.

The Right Time to Start Your Job Search

When should you look for a job? The answer that’s come down to us through the ages, one that rings true to everyone who has ever ventured into the job market, is that the best time to be looking for a job is when you don’t need one at all. There is no need to conduct a job search each day but if you are always doing some of the things that are part of that search then your career will be stronger and any eventual job search will be better. The best thing about these activities is that they’ll all be beneficial even if you don’t plan to dip a single toe into the job market.

It affects more than the employer’s thought process. It affects you, and your own mindset matters a great deal. If employers want candidates who are confident and positive, no one is in a better position to demonstrate those attributes than the candidate who doesn’t need the job right this minute. The one who can afford to stay where he is while he looks around for the best possible option is the one who is relaxed and secure. Meanwhile, the one who really needs this job, who’s tightly wound and trying too hard, is the one who comes across as desperate. That’s not what hiring managers want to see.

It affects more than the employer’s thought process. It affects you, and your own mindset matters a great deal. If employers want candidates who are confident and positive, no one is in a better position to demonstrate those attributes than the candidate who doesn’t need the job right this minute. The one who can afford to stay where he is while he looks around for the best possible option is the one who is relaxed and secure. Meanwhile, the one who really needs this job, who’s tightly wound and trying too hard, is the one who comes across as desperate. That’s not what hiring managers want to see.

There’s another side to the notion that the best time to be looking is when you don’t need to find something, and that side is where you find the real lesson for employed searchers: You don’t have to be conducting a full-blown job search every day of your working life, but you should always be doing some of the things that are part of that search.

The best thing about these activities is that they’ll all be beneficial even if you don’t plan to dip a single toe into the job market.

The Anti-Resolution: Jobus Findinicus

Resolutions are a lot of work. They take willpower. They take energy. Sometimes they fizzle out at the first sign of the slightest trouble.

So be it, because we just don’t care. Forget all that willpower and energy. You don’t need them, because we have a magic wand and we know the right spell to cast: Jobus Findinicus! With those two words, clinically tested and endorsed by four out of five wizards of the enchanted job search, your troubles are over. You’re now in a position to change one of your job search tendencies without lifting a finger. You don’t need willpower or energy, and you don’t need to resist temptation. Just make a wish and the change shall come to pass.



What would you wish for?

A system that you’ll use – and one that works: You’ve tried just about everything, and you feel like you’re all over the place. You don’t want to miss out on anything, so you try everything. The whole enterprise leaves you feeling like you’d be better off with a lot more focus, but you can’t seem to commit to a unified approach to the search, and you’re not even sure what a unified approach would look like. You’ve tried one thing, then another, taking a bit from here and a bit from there. If you could just get yourself to settle into an effective, organized strategy, something that goes step by sensible step, you’d make a lot more progress and save yourself a lot of stress.

A thicker skin: Ask people in sales, even the best of them, about cold-calling, and you’ll be met with an abundance of negative reactions. Constant rejection, the kind of situation in which you’re lucky to get a positive reaction from one out of every 100 attempts, is no easy thing, and that’s often the story with the job search, especially when jobs are scarce and applicants plentiful. Wave the magic wand, though, and each rejection will no longer feel like a personal affront or a devastating setback. You’ll roll with the punches. If you don’t get hired this time, it’s no big deal. In fact, it’s their loss. You’ll move on to the next opportunity, no worse for wear.

The key to the magic of LinkedIn: You’ve heard a lot about LinkedIn. You know it’s important, and you even have a half-baked profile on the site. It doesn’t seem to do much for you, though, and you know that the site has all sorts of unrealized potential. Wave the magic wand, however, and your LinkedIn presence is first-class, you’re using connections to open doors and you’re expanding your network exponentially every day. Who knows? With the right spell, you could end up as one of those “Influencers” you’ve heard about. Before you know it, you’re the one people look to for insight and wisdom, whether the subject is your industry or the best way to get the most out of the premier site for professional networking.



The ability to ace any interview: Interviews are tough. We get nervous. We didn’t prepare in quite the right way, so we missed a great chance to answer a couple of tough questions or to ask some fabulous questions of our own. With a little bit of magic, though, we’re perfectly prepared. We’re cool, calm and collected. When we walk into an interview, we know we’re walking out with an offer.

Those are four big items that could use some magical help. The bad news, however, is that we can’t seem to find that magic wand at the moment. There’s good news, too, though. If you look at each of those magical wishes, seeing them come to pass is not beyond the realm of possibility. Each of them can start with a small step in the right direction: some investigation into a better approach to the search, a slight psychological adjustment, a bit of study into what makes LinkedIn tick and a slightly more thorough approach to interview preparation.

None of it requires some major resolution that you’re unlikely to honor. Start with baby steps. Results will follow, no magic needed.

Job Interview Preparation Pays and Pays and Pays

From the very beginning of the application process, you should be on a fact-finding mission. You should be learning about the company, the industry, the job, and how those three things fit together. You should be tailoring everything you do to what you learn, beginning with your resume. That same research will tell you how to describe yourself in a way that fits the company’s goals.

When Good is Good, Don’t Wait for Perfect

Voltaire, in a poem among his “moral stories,” said, “The best is the enemy of the good,” a sentiment that has been repeated in many contexts.

It’s in the Pareto principle, the 80-20 rule that tells us to put efforts into things that are likely to pay off, even if it means neglecting the long shots. If we wait for perfection before we act, we’ll be waiting a long time – or we may never act at all.

So don’t get distracted by the biggest picture and best outcome. Just get first downs. Keep moving forward in your job search. Not every play has to end in a touchdown.

Passion Drives Job Search Success

Nothing will serve your job search better than your own passion. No tool will do more to advance your career than the sense that this is where you really belong. If you let it, that attitude will invariably express itself, whether in resumes, cover letters or interviews.

True passion is a very hard thing to fake.

When it’s real, however, and you’re truly passionate and legitimately engaged, people notice. Once they notice, they respond. Your next task is to find ways to make sure that the response you want is the one you get.

 

You Must Stand Out: It’s the Purpose of Your Resume

Employers scan the average resume for 15 seconds, so you must stand out at first glance.

Does your resume distinguish you from the rest? Create one that sparks that golden, “must-have” feeling in the employer.

Employers only care about your history, your skills and your abilities for one reason: Will those qualities help us to achieve the results we want? That’s the question a good resume answers.

You Must Stand Out: It’s the Pupose of Your Resume

Employers scan the average resume for 15 seconds, so you must stand out at first glance.

Does your resume distinguish you from the rest? Create one that sparks that golden, “must-have” feeling in the employer.

Employers only care about your history, your skills and your abilities for one reason: Will those qualities help us to achieve the results we want? That’s the question a good resume answers.

Writing a resume after leaving military service

Leaving the military and entering the civilian workforce can seem like entering unfamiliar territory to many veterans, especially veterans who have spent years away from the civilian job market.

For employers, military experience and skills can be of real value, but your resume has to do its job. It must convince potential employers that they will benefit from hiring you.

For more on this topic.

Learn About Potential Employers

Things you need to know about companies you are considering before sending out your resume:

• How big is the company?

• What is the firm’s growth potential?

• Has there been any recent news regarding the company?

• What is the culture of the company like?

• What is the management style?

When you take the time to research companies before you apply, you ensure that you won’t be blindsided. Learn the questions to ask while on a job interview.